Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-02-21

| hDOus Ile SpOlS-IuS Ieu Spots on ll"-
| ticket-and he is quarreling about tn
i peculiar signature of the President of IT,.
steamship company, and he is Quarrelir =
about the manner of the clerk VINO hanuS
him the ticket. How long has he been
J standing there? Three weeks. Mean
while, perhaps twenty steamers have gone
out OF port, and hear the shrek Of the
steamtug that could take him 10 the last
vessel that could bear him TO his engage
ment in London. Still he stands in Bowl
! ing Green discussing the ticket. What
do you say in regard to that man? You
say he is fool. Well, in that very way are
many men acting in regard to the matter
of the soul. They are cAviiing about the
Atonement, the red spots on the ticket;
about the character of the minister who
hands them the ticket; about whether it
has divine or human signature, and,
meanwhile, all their opportunities for
heaven are sailing out of the harbor, and
| hear the last tap of the bell announcing
their last chance for heaven. Go aboard.
| Do not waste any more time in higgling,
and carping, and ciiticising, and wonder
| ing, and, in the presence of an sstounded
heaven, playing the fool.
go still further and say to you that
pay out eternity for time. How little
care do we bestOw upon the railroad de-
pot where we stop twenty minutes to
dine We dash in and we dash out
again. We do not examine the archi-
lecture of the building, nor the face of
the caterer. We supply our hunger, we
pay our money, and we put on our hat
and take our place in the train.
pared with the place for which we are
bound? Now, my friends, this world is
only q stopping place on the way 20 8
momentous destination, and yet how
many of us sit down as though we had
consummated our journey, as though We
| had come to the Lnal depot, when our
stopping here is as compared with our
stopping there as is twenty minutes to
twelve hours-yea, as the one huudredth
part of q second compared with 10, 000,-
! 900, 600 years! Would Spain sell US
| CUBA for bushel of wheat? Would Eng-
lsnd sell us India for g ton of coal?
Would Venice sell US al her pictures for
an American school boys sketch? An.
that would be 6 better bargain for Eng
land, Spain and Venice than that man
makes who gives his eternity for time.
Yet how many there are who are saying
to-day: "Give me the worlds dollars
and you may have the eternal rewards.
| Give me the worlds applause and you
may have the garlaDds of God. Give me
twenty, or forty, or sixty years of worldly
success and / don't care what becomes
of the future. l am going into that world
uninsured. l take the responsibility.
Don't bother ne about your religion.
Here have the two worlds before me
this one and the next. | have chosen
this. Go away from me, God and en-,
gels, and all thoughts of the future ~
But where is Crgsus and Cleopatra and
4EsOpas, who had one dish OF food that
cost $4,000 and Lentulus, who had
a pound Of fish worth $4,000; and
SCaurus, who bought 8 country seat for
500, 600, 600; and Tiberius. who left at
death q fortune OF Sis, l20,000? Whare
are thev? II a win y day should blow
all the dust that is LETT Of them into your
eyes it would not make you wink twice.
All, my friends, then very certainly Y ur
comforts of surrounding cannot keep
back the old archer. You cannot charm
him with music, or dazzle him with plate,
or deCoy him with pictures, or bride hiIn
with your money.
What is the use OF your struggling for
that which you cannot keep? AS long as
you have clothes and food and shelter
and education for yourselves and your
children and the means for Christian
generosity, be satisfied. You worry, and
tug, ard sweat, and wear yourself out
for that which cannot satisfy. Whole
flocks Of crows feet on your temples anG
cheeks before they ought to have come
there. You are ten years older than you
ought to be, and yet you cannot take
along with you into the future world
even the two pennies CT your eyeIids to
keep them shut alter you are dead. And
yet you mold onto this world with the
avldity of the miser who persisted in
having his bonds and mortgages and
notes of hand in the bosom OF his dress,
ing gown while ne was dying, and in the
last moment held his parchment in such q
tight grip that the undertaken after death
must almost break the mans fingers in
order to get the bonds away. Men are
sc,ually making that choice, while there
ere others VINO have done far differently.
When they tried TO bTibe with money
Martin Luther, some one said: "There's
no use trying to do that-that Dutch
beast cares nothing for gold" When
they tried by giving him cardinals hat,
to bride Savonarola, he stood up in his
pulpit and cried out: ~ will have no
red hat, save that of martrydom, colored
with my own blood" These men chose
Christ amid great prosecutions; but how
many there are in this day, when Chris
tianity seems to be popular, who are
ashamed of Christ and not willing to take
the hardships-.he seeming hardships-
of His religion. And, alas for them! for
long after the crash of the worlds Gemoli-
ton, they shall find that in all these years
they were turning their backs upon the
palaces of heaven, sCrabbling on the door
of this worlds treasure house, the saliva
of terrific lunacy on their lips-horribly
snd overwhelmingly playing the fool.
Once more: I say to you that those
men play the fool who, while they admit
the righteousness of religion, set it dow n
for future attendance. Do you know how
many times the word "now" occurs in
| the Bible over 200 times. One OF the
shortest words in the Bible, and VT one
of the grandest in meaning and ramifca-
tions. When does the Bible say is the
best time to repent? Now. Wien does
the Bible say that God Will forgive !?
Now. When does God say is the only
safe time to attend to the matters of the
soul? Now. But that word "noW''